Court to consider closing sewage account at King's Mountain

Landowners to receive funds

March 28, 2013|By JUDY D.J. ELLICH | Daily American Staff Writer

SOMERSET COUNTY — An escrow account opened 34 years ago for an unneeded sewage collection system at King's Mountain Resort has been reviewed by accountants and is scheduled for a court hearing in April for final disbursement plans.

Somerset County Judge David C. Klementik will decide whether to approve the proposed closure of the trust and the method for disbursing about $165,000 in the account to King's Mountain landowners at an April 29 hearing, according to county solicitor Dan Rullo.

More than 40 individuals — some of whom own multiple properties on King's Mountain — will be affected by the court decision.

"We believe that the distribution should run with the land," Rullo said.

Some of the properties have changed ownership several times since 1979. All new landowners on King's Mountain must contribute $2,500 to the fund for the construction of the sewage collection system. That requirement will be in effect until the escrow account is closed, Rullo said.

Last January the Somerset County Planning Commission was authorized to use $1,600 from the account to hire accountant Vickie Beer of Beer, Ream & Co., Somerset, to review the trust. The commission became involved with the project at its inception in 1979. Officials are uncertain why the county became part of managing the escrow account.

Beer reviewed the trust to determine who made deposits, for how much and when the payments were made by subdivision property owners in Middlecreek and Upper Turkeyfoot townships. Beer looked into the interest accrued on the deposits.

Rullo said the escrow is being released because it will never accrue enough money to pay for the system.

"Widmer Engineering Inc. of Connellsville estimated the cost for the sewerage collection system would be $980,000 in 1979," Rullo said. "In 2009 the same engineering firm estimated the cost for the system at $4.85 million."

Residents of King's Mountain representing the landowners approached the county in 2009 requesting that the trust be closed and the money be disbursed, he said. The landowners indicated that the trust would never generate sufficient money to construct the system in the subdivision, he said.

The development of King's Mountain Resort did not go as planned, according to county planners. The trust account was based on the premise that hundreds of people would buy and develop the hundreds of acres in the subdivision. A sewer treatment plant and sewage distribution system would be needed to accommodate that growth. There needed to be a certain number of lots sold, about 80, and that was never accomplished, county planner William Lehman said.